Page 5 of Ryder

“I’m not on anything. I said it because it’s true. You, Divinity Stamon, are my soulmate. The perfect woman for me.”

“Ha, you really are a fuck Muppet. I’m not your soulmate. Trust me when I say you wouldn’t want me to be.” She sighed and was quiet for a moment or two. “Where are you taking me, ‘cause we’ve passed at least one police station and I have a feeling you’ve got a few loose screws.” I could feel her gaze on me as she seemed to access me. “You’re big. Well, I know a lot of big guys, and most are just brawn and nothing upstairs. I’m starting to think you fall in that category.” I growled at the idea of her knowing any men. “I do have to be at work in like an hour and half or so. I told my boss I’d be late as I had stuff with Arron to sort out and she said take an extra couple of hours or so. Um, before work I have to go home and change my shoes. These are not working-all-day–on-my-feet shoes. These are take-no-crap-from-anyone-while-being-super-tall shoes.”

“Those shoes have some power,” I muttered.

I didn’t need to turn to feel her glare on me. “Why yes, they do.” She huffed. “Are you gonna answer about where the hell you’re taking me?”

“I’m taking you to my place. Our home.”

“I hope you know that that kind of talk doesn’t calm my fears about you being sane. I’m sure what you’re doing falls under like, false arrest, or some such shit. So really, you’re like, kidnapping me, and you should be the one arrested.”

I waited a moment for the, ha, I was sure would follow, but didn’t, then shot a smirk at her. “It’s good to be a cop and a Silverman. So many privileges.” I gave an exaggerated sigh and enjoyed the squeal of pure frustrated anger from Divinity. Holding in my chuckle, I turned down my street and leaned down to get the remote to open the gates, pressed it, and drove through. Shutting the gates, I didn’t bother parking in the garage. We both had to be at work. I wanted to show her her new home and explain what was going to happen.

Getting out of the car I went around to her side. She’d opened the door and stood awkwardly, still connected to the car by the cuffs. Standing just out of reach, I drank her in. She really was a little thing, but with curves in all the right places. Her black hair finished at her very fine arse. Her make-up was flawless and finished her outfit perfectly. She was beyond gorgeous. I knew she was going to be trouble with a capital T.

“If I come closer and undo the cuffs do you promise not to attack me?”

“No. I promise nothing.” She tilted her head up.

“I’m not letting you free until I get a promise from you. I’d like to say I have all day to wait on you to agree, but not only do you have work, I do, too.” I held up my hands in surrender and took a small step towards her. “I promise I won’t hurt you. All I want to do is show you the house and explain what is going on. I promise I’ll take you to work after. I’ll even talk to your boss if you’d like so you don’t get in trouble.”

She glanced down at her cuffed hand and then back at me studying me with shrewd scrutiny. “Okay. I won’t attack you.”

She didn’t promise, but from what I’d learned so far of my mate, she didn’t promise something unless she meant it. Slowly, I approached Divinity and undid her cuff. As soon as she was free she bolted as best she could for the front door. I was impressed with how good she was in the heels.

The door was locked. The momentary look of defeat that flashed over her face had my heart sinking. This wasn’t what I wanted. I hadn’t wanted to be like my cousins and uncle and scare my mate. I’d wanted to try and be a bit more rational. I didn’t want to resort to kidnapping and I hoped that because I was taking her to work in an hour or so that it wouldn’t count.

Going to the door I flashed a smile at her and told her the security code. “I’ll also give you a key once we get inside,” I added.

Divinity didn’t say anything. She pushed past me when the door opened and I followed behind her. “It’s not what I expected,” she muttered.

“What did you expect?”

She jumped, seeming surprised I was so closely following her. She shrugged. “It’s actually quite homey. I expected something this extravagant to be…I don’t know, well, a show home really. All whites and browns. Bland and…” she eyed me up and down. “Manly.”

Puffing my chest out, I winked at her. “It’s manly.”

The smile that spread over her face for a moment turned her from gorgeous to breathtakingly beautiful. “Oh, you look manly, but your home has been decorated to be a home. I like what I’m seeing. Whoever did this, has good taste.”

“It’s our house.”

Her smile disappeared and she sighed. “And there is the crazy.” She walked down the hall past the lounge room and kitchen out to the rumpus room and sat on the couch that looked over the beach. “Come on. Let’s get this talk out of the way so I can get back to my real life.”

I went to sit next to her, but she pointed to the recliner. Sitting down on it I leaned forward and took a deep breath in and tried to think of how to start the explanation for everything that was between us without sounding crazy. “Before I start this, I want you admit something.”

She rolled her eyes and groaned, “Fine. If agreeing to something will move this along, then tell me what you want me to admit.”

“You feel it. The spark between us.”

Divinity wriggled back into the seat, closed her eyes and sighed loudly. After a moment or two she massaged her forehead. Her eyes popped open and she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. She was adorable. “I’ll admit I feel something for you. Annoyance. Displeasure. And, oh I don’t know, anger. I’m not sure about a spark, but maybe my desire to Taser you ninety percent of the time is coming through our connection you ‘feel’ we have.”

She was witty and such a smart arse. I was loving that she wasn’t scared of me. She didn’t give a rat’s arse about who I was or who my family was, and I loved it. My smile since taking her felt like a permanent fixture. “See, you’re not scared ether. I’ve kidnapped you and don’t you find it strange that you’re not scared or terrified?”

I watched as she realized what I was saying was true. Right now, she was vulnerable and should be scared out of her mind, but she was still bossy and sassy. Her eyes scanned me before looking at her surrounding and then coming back to me. After a while I saw the realization that something wasn’t right come over her. She uncrossed her arms and threw them up in the air. “Oh all right, you’ve made your frigging point. Tell me now what the hell is fucking going on.”

Yes, I had her. Now to convince her of the curse and try not to have her think I’d lost my Goddamn marbles. Relaxing back into my seat, I started at the beginning.

Ryder had a few screws loose. He’d just spent a good fifteen minutes telling me about his family back in the ‘old country’ helping a group of gypsies and them repaying the Silverman family by giving them the gift to know who their soulmate is. But, supposedly the curse is a double-edged sword, because when a Silverman finds his mate, he becomes, for the best explanation, a possessive caveman. I really wasn’t finding his story very realistic, or if it was real, anything I wanted to be involved with. I had enough alpha men in my life, thank you very much, there was no way I was going to add anymore. Ryder may be hot with a capital H, but not only was he a lunatic, he was way too alpha for me. I liked my men without that gene.

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